First ABC Conference in Kyiv Welcomes Business Partners

Ukraine just finished hosting the first International Annual Business ConferenceABC: Ukraine & Partners. The aim of the event was to further develop the dialogue between business leaders and Ukrainian government and bring in new international investments to broaden the scope of the nation's economy. The two-day conference resulted in signing 11 cooperation agreements and memorandums.

The business conference hosted more than 3.5 thousand participants from 62 countries, who represented 1.5 thousand foreign and Ukrainian companies, academia, financial institutions, diplomatic missions and media. The program of the event included numerous panel discussions featuring speakers who represented the foreign and national investors as well as the Ukrainian government. The list of the key participants of the conference included the Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Dukanovic, President of the European Parliament (2002-2004) Pat Kox, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, former Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland (1997-2000) Leszek Balcerowicz and others.

To make business conditions in Ukraine transparent and attractive to all investors the government has been reforming laws and regulations as well as redefining economic freedoms for entrepreneurs and businesses, stated Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov in his conference address. "Our ultimate goal is to meet the highest business standards. We will definitely achieve this goal, when our country will finally be among the top ten countries regarding economic freedoms," he said.

Many foreign investors who already brought their capitals to Ukraine considered the ABC conference a positive and proactive tool to promote numerous areas of Ukraine's economy. Morgan Williams, president of the US-Ukraine Business Council, emphasized the interests of American companies in the Ukrainian agricultural sector. "The most attractive investments for the U.S. and Ukraine are agriculture. No questions," he said.

Reportedly, 11 cooperation agreements and memorandums have been signed at the end of the conference. These included contracts as well as memorandums of cooperation and intent with Intel Ukraine, German company CLAAS, Innova Partners, Daewoo International Corporation, China National Heavy Machinery Corporation, Avec Group, Alstom, etc. The scope of the projects varied from science and education development to agricultural machinery, mining and metallurgy, public transportation, infrastructure development and export/import agreements.